3. Jehoash's good reign in Judah 11:21-12:21

With the beginning of Jehoash's reign Judah began to enjoy over 100 years of consecutive leadership by four men whom the writer of Kings judged good. None of these four (Jehoash, Amaziah, Azariah, and Jotham) was as good for Judah as Asa and Jehoshaphat had been or as Hezekiah or Josiah would be. Nevertheless together they provided the longest continuous span of God-approved leadership in Judah's history.

 Jehoash's contributions 11:21-12:3

Jehoash was the youngest king to mount Judah's throne. He began reigning at age seven and ruled for 40 years (835-796 B.C.). His father was Ahaziah, the most recent male ruler of Judah, and his grandmother was Athaliah.

Jehoash followed the Law of Moses and ruled well as long as his mentor Jehoiada, the high priest, lived. However when Jehoiada died, evidently shortly after Jehoash's temple repairs were complete (2 Chron. 24:15), he began to follow the advice of certain Judean officials who led him into unfaithfulness to Yahweh. He stubbornly refused the warnings God sent him by prophets (2 Chron. 24:17-19) and by Zechariah who had replaced his father as high priest (2 Chron. 24:20-22). He even executed Zechariah. In the earlier years of his reign he was faithful to God, except that he allowed the high places of worship to remain in Judah (cf. Deut. 12:2-7, 13-14).

 Jehoash's restoration of the temple 12:4-16

This was the first such project the writer recorded in Kings. Later Hezekiah and Josiah also repaired the temple. Until now temple expenses came out of the royal treasury, but Josiah moved this obligation into the private sector.⁷⁶Jehoash's original plan was to use part of the money that the people contributed for the maintenance of the priesthood to pay for the restoration (cf. Exod. 30:11-16; Lev. 27; Num. 30). Apparently the priests did not cooperate with this plan, perhaps out of selfishness. Consequently the king adopted a completely freewill offering approach and appointed other men to supervise its administration. This plan proved effective. Many other ancient Near Eastern governments used this approach to maintaining their temples at this time.⁷⁷The administrators of the program proved trustworthy. Integrity returned to Judah partially when the people rededicated themselves to Yahweh (11:17).

 Jehoash's unfaithfulness and assassination 12:17-21

King Hazael of Aram had defeated Israel during the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz (13:3, 22). He then pressed south along the Mediterranean coast toward Judah. He captured Gath (cf. 2 Chron. 11:8) and then sent soldiers against Jerusalem who killed many Judean leaders (2 Chron. 24:3). Rather than turning to Yahweh for deliverance, Jehoash bought Hazael off with gold from the renovated temple (2 Chron. 24:23).

The Arameans had wounded Jehoash who went to recuperate in a town named Beth Millo (2 Chron. 24:25). There several of his officials assassinated him (v. 20) primarily because he had slain the high priest Zechariah (2 Chron. 24:20-22). The king was buried in Jerusalem but not in the royal tombs (2 Chron. 24:25) because the people did not have great respect for him.

"Once a promising, God-fearing young ruler, Joash died a disappointment. By bribing Hazael with Temple treasures, he tarnished his one great achievement, the Temple restoration."⁷⁸

Jehoash's reign started off well but ended poorly because he turned from Yahweh. Instead of continuing to follow the high priest's counsel, he silenced him by killing him. Consequently God's blessing on his earlier years in office turned into chastening later in his life.